Wayne Kent, the soon-to-retire pastor of First Christian Church in Decatur, Ill., was amazed at the response after he suggested to his congregation that if they wanted to support the Ukrainian people, they could do so via an offering envelope.
“I seriously was thinking, Oh, we might get $1,500, $2,500 dollars, but the numbers became significantly larger than that very quickly,” Kent told his friend Greg Taylor who, with Stephanie Spangler, co-host the Direct Line radio show on 1490 WDAN in Danville, Ill. “Other people inside the community, friends from around the country, a fellowship of churches called Disciple Heritage Fellowship—suddenly we were getting thousands of dollars, to the point where it’s now over $120,000.”
Kent told Taylor and Spangler—who minister with Second Church of Christ in Danville—that some of the donated money will go to churches in Poland that have taken in refugees to purchase appliances like refrigerators and washing machines, but most will go to help children that have come into Poland.
VermillionCountyFirst.com carried a news story about the conversation.
(We featured Kent and Taylor’s radio show activities in an article last summer.
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Pearl Christian Church in Plantation Key, Fla. (on Islamorada in the Florida Keys), celebrated its Charter Membership Sunday on Easter. The congregation officially began on Jan. 2 with Al Serhal preaching.
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First Christian Church in Memphis, Mo., broke ground for a new activity center on April 10. The center will include a fellowship hall, kitchen, and bathrooms and will connect with the lower level of the church building, nemonews.net reported.
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Glen Elliott, a missionary to Ukraine for five years in the 1990s who has served with Pantano Christian Church in Tucson, Ariz., for more than 20 years, shares insights on Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine weekly via his Facebook page. Here is some of what Elliott posted on Monday:
“The danger in the occupied areas of southern Ukraine is getting worse. Churches are being searched as the Russians are looking for deserters. Pastors are being taken and tortured. The stories are shocking. . . .
“We [Pantano] helped a church in an occupied area buy a van for . . . evacuating people out of the danger zone. Today, it takes its first group of orphans and widows out. Pray they make it safely out and then back to take more out of harm’s way. . . .
“Food and medicines are being sent to the occupied areas. . . . Often such transports have to go through 10 or more checkpoints and each one is a unique danger.
“In occupied areas, businesses are being forced to become officially registered ‘Russian businesses.’ Russian flags are now flying over government buildings. . . .
“The TCI [Tavriski Christian Institute] staff in western Ukraine has bought sewing machines to help provide employment for displaced people. They are working on opening a counseling center to care for the masses who are experiencing trauma. . . .”
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Among those scheduled to be honored this Friday by the Just For Kids Child Advocacy Center in Beckley, W.V., will be senior minister Jordan Legg and Grandview Christian Church, Beaver, W.V. The annual Champions of Children Gala honors seldom recognized individuals and groups who are devoted to serving children and families. For 10-plus years, GCC has been a monthly donor to Just for Kids, which works to reduce trauma for children who are victims of abuse, a local newspaper reported.
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The knitting group at First Christian Church of Johnson City, Tenn., gifted handmade hats—complete with bunny ears—to babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Niswonger Children’s Hospital. On Easter, the hospital shared images via Facebook of several babies wearing their bunny-ear hats.
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